U.S. swine flu response hurt by spending cut: report

Layoffs and spending cuts in the public health sector weakened U.S. efforts to battle the pandemic, which has killed an estimated 10,000 Americans, the nonprofit Trust For America's Health found.

"Trying to respond to the pandemic in the middle of the worst economic climate since the Great Depression has meant that we were asking public officials to do more with less and budgets and staff were stretched well beyond their limits," the group's deputy director Rich Hamburg told reporters.